Beryl was born at the Menindee Mission Station in 1935 to Jack Kelly and Louisa Kelly (nee Briggs), remaining at the Mission after it closed in 1949. Beryl has spent all her life in the district. Her traditional name is Yungha-Dhu and she is an Elder of the Ngiyampaa people.

Beryl was educated in both the Aboriginal and white ways going to the Mission school, which only went to Year 4. Her father, a drover, used to tell Dreamtime legends and stories of his life around the campfire and this was how the stories were passed on to her.

Beryl would be taken out over the desert sand dunes with the other children to hunt for goannas and echidnas, or to collect grubs from the trees to use on their fishing lines back at the river.

From her parents she also learnt tracking skills, and would often be sent out with her brother to get a rabbit for breakfast before school. Beryl was careful to pass on her knowledge of bush food and bush medicine to all of her children. She was employed as a domestic for four years on stations around Menindee as well as a cook in a Menindee cafe and hotel.

Beryl married in 1953 and had ten children: Kerry (dec), twins Rhonda and Geraldine (dec), Lorraine (dec), Lawrence (dec), Julie-Anne, Harry, Barry, Kenneth and Amanda. She has eighteen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren. She also has numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews. Over a period of time Beryl has amassed a large extended family, Australia-wide, due to the respect she has gained.

Beryl’s first husband, James Gilbert Philp, the father of all her children, passed away in 1980 and she married Alan James Carmichael in 1984.

1967 (the year of the Referendum) saw Beryl become interested in the local school where she saw a need to help Aboriginal children keep on track and become motivated. ‘Our kids were experiencing racism in the schools, coming from the mission,’ she says, ‘and they needed someone in there as a role model. So I went to the school and asked the principal if I could go in and talk to these kids about racism and being different. He said, “Beryl, if you’ve got anything to pass onto the kids, you go and do it”.’ Beryl’s lessons in Aboriginal culture have been extremely effective and she continued her work in schools for forty years.

In the 1970s, she became actively involved in Aboriginal affairs. She was part of the setting up of the Nyampa Housing Company in Menindee, was on the first committee of the Wiimpatja Rehabilitation Centre in Broken Hill, a director on the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service and later the Western Aboriginal Legal Service. She was also involved in the Menindee Central School Mother’s Club and worked towards setting up a pre-school in Menindee and Bugdlie in Broken Hill.

In 1980, Beryl attended an ANZAAS conference at Adelaide University. From this she gained the impetus to become active in schools talking about Aboriginal culture, passing down stories that had been handed down to her.

Beryl was elected as a member of the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group in 1982 as a regional representative. She commenced working as an Aboriginal Cultural Studies advisor with the Department of Education and Training in 1990.

This permanent position was very rewarding for her, as an Aboriginal person, as it enabled her to share her knowledge and experiences with school children and the wider community. Although Beryl had been passing on her stories to school students beforehand, by supporting the Aboriginal Education Policy when it was introduced, it has instigated an Aboriginal perspective over all aspects of the school curriculum.

Beryl ran a camp called ‘Ngallia Norta Norta Killara — All learning together’ in 1995 with all the Elders from NSW and Queensland coming together in Menindee. Her ‘Joining in the Dreaming’ camps are one of the highlights of her career.

For decades of service, Beryl has received a swathe of awards, including the New South Wales Heritage Award, a meritorious award from the Minister of Education, and a Centenary of Federation award for community service.

Beryl has published a book of poems and stories called Mayagarthi and an Aboriginal Literacy Resource book Robin’s Plum Duff. She has animated traditional stories in a display at the Powerhouse Museum and is currently having her life story written as part of the grant received as the recipient of The Rona Tranby Award. The Rona Tranby Award was established in 1991 to encourage and support the recording of the oral history of Aboriginal Elders linking the Jewish and Aboriginal communities.

Beryl is currently involved with the following committees: Member of the National Indigenous Womens’ Coalition, Advisory to the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Western Lands, Life Member of the NSW AECG and a member of the Menindee AECG, member of Menindee Local Aboriginal Land Council, Western Region TAFE Aboriginal Education, and School of the Air helping with Aboriginal lessons, to name a few.

Beryl has been a role model and advocate for the local and wider Aboriginal community.

From the book Menindee’s Unsung Aboriginal Heroes, Menindee Central School